Moscow admits eight Russian athletes have doping history

Moscow, July 25 (IANS) The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) on Monday admitted that eight members of the Olympic team had a doping history.

"According to available data, as of now it is eight athletes," ROC's president, Alexandr Zhukov, told reporters when asked about the number of athletes implicated in doping cases.

He said he did not rule out the appearance of new names in the following days, considering the damming evidence presented in the recently-unveiled McLaren report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), reports Efe.

"I've spoken with almost all the presidents of the summer sports federations. They are actively working towards composing lists including all athletes with doping histories," Zhukov said.

He added that the lists of Russian athletes taking part in this year's Olympics need to be finished "in a matter of hours and days" in agreement with international federations.

"These lists must be approved by experts belonging to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)," he said.

The ROC on Sunday ceded the responsibility of deciding which Russian athletes may compete in Rio to each sport's international federation.

In order to be allowed to take part in the Games, the athletes must fulfil certain criteria, the most important being a doping-free history.

The athletes who pass this filter will then need to submit to a rigorous anti-doping test performed by WADA.

WADA, along with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), on Sunday expressed its disappointment with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decision allowing some Russians to take part in Rio 2016, since both agencies had called for a blanket ban of all Russian athletes.